Glimpses from the Heart

Friday, November 4, 2005
3:34:00 PM EST

Feeling Anxious
Hearing Washing Machine

Storm Stories: Glimpses from the Heart

Today I want to share some glimpses into the heart with you. Share some things people actually did in and around our area for one another in the wake of Rita. Large things, simple things. Most I believe for altruistic reasons, but some may have been with motives to promote themselves. But God is amazing and can use even those actions to benefit others!

Local News Anchors and radio personalities, some who stayed during the storm, some who evacuated and came right back. They went into studios that had suffered damage. They ran on generators, in the heat, to broadcast out local news and helpful information. They searched and they researched. They connected us. Some still return home at the end of the day to homes with blue roofs and no cable.

The Hardin County Sheriff's Dept., who responded to call after call. Who helped many who had no way to help themselves. Elderly people who needed ice for their meds. Older folks who needed a hot meal. People who needed gas to run their generators and even help cranking them.

FEMA, the National Guard and the Red Cross, who tirelessly handed out meals, ice and water each day of the week. In heat, in misquitos. Away from their own homes and families.

Mario Gonzales, Pete's cousin who brought in gasoline for the ambulance service to run on. Who parked a large BBQ cooker in the parking lot of a destroyed convenience store. Organized volunteers to keep it going.....cooking and handing out hot plate lunches to anyone who stopped by. Fed an awful lot of the folks who were in the area to help us. As frozen meat became defrosted, people dropped off their items, the food was cooked and passed out. Waste not, want not they say.

The woman who phoned a radio show to say that she was caring for survivors in her home and didn't have enough water. Was asking did they think it would be alright for her to go over to her neighbors pool and dip out water for flushing comodes, etc. This is respect of others and their belongings.

My husband, Pete, who went from house to house down our road switching people's water pumps that were wired for 220 and no good with their generator, over to 110 so they could have water in their homes.

Those neighbors who opened their homes to me to use their phones that did work or their washers that were ran by generators.

Our own family. My sister and husband who loaded us down with koolaid and sugar, brought us gas when it wasn't plentiful. Pete's siblings that brought ice when it was hard for us to get and food and other supplies.....sharing out of what they had received.

The business I work for, that opened the doors to their undamaged location to allow displaced workers to shower and sleep there. Who cooked and fed every worker and anyone else who stopped in every day for a week. Who brought each worker in one by one to help them get on the internet and register with FEMA.

The many men who left home and family to come help restore our infrastructure. They worked incredible long days for weeks. Ate as we did. Slept in tents at old fair grounds and rodeo arenas.

The many companies, who forgave monthly payments for a month or even three so folks could get their feet back under them.

The list goes on and on. I could never mention them all. But you get the idea. Folks helping folks and doing what had to be done.

There is a lot of talk and books and such around these days about angels. People seem to think that angels are something spectacular. Actually they are God's go-fors. I believe in them. But the amazing, the brilliant thing of God is that His Spirit indwells all who believe in Christ. That ever since the ascension of Christ, God's preferred method of delivering help and aid is us. Ordinary, extra-ordinary, people.